Purple and yellow balloons decked West Hall Auditorium Friday night in preparation for the Rensselaer Pride Alliance’s annual Drag Show. The theme this year was a takeoff on Project Runway, where a few RPI students volunteered to dress in clothes that the drag queens—and king—picked for them. Before that happened, though, the show featured a couple of hours worth of entertainment from performers that regularly work at Club Phoenix in Albany.
Miss Storm, the main hostess of the show, emerged from the stage dressed all in black. She lit up the stage by lip synching to Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary.” Behind her, all of the professional drag queens and king, as well as the student volunteers, rhythmically clapped to the song, while the audience cheered Storm on.
Afterward, the show kicked in with the next performance coming from Miss Pattie Lee (this year’s Miss Gay Albany), who performed to Alison Jiear’s “I Just Wanna Dance.” Miss Storm then introduced Miss Anna Lisa to the audience. Anna Lisa­—who has earned the notorious nickname of “Miss Bathroom Stalls”—gave her rendition of Bob and Tom’s “The Pussy Cat Song,” which caused snickers to break out throughout the audience. The song didn’t end there for Anna Lisa, however, as she continued with a large medley of tunes including the Carpenters’ “Mr. Postman,” Diana Ross’ “Stop! In the Name of Love,” The Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself,” and Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.”
But not all of the acts consisted of drag queens. There was a lone drag king—named Mr. Sebastian—who performed a dance number that did not fail to please. Following Mr. Sebastian was Miss Dusty Rose, who regaled us with Whitney Houston’s “All At Once.”
Some “testicle difficulties”—a term coined by the Phoenix Club ladies—emerged later on, when the immensely tall Lily Savage came out onto the stage in a sparkling silver dress and a tiara. There was a problem with the wrong song being played a few times, but Lily Savage finally decided to change her act. In place of the original song, the drag queen lip synched to Selena’s “Dreaming,” drawing out peals of laughter from those in the front as she pointed at them. Miss Lily Savage was also the drag show’s co-host, along with Storm and Pattie Lee.
The audience was pleasantly surprised when Miss Melissa Capree appeared to perform. Capree danced to Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High,” but it was her two sudden handsprings that drew out whistles from the crowd.
Not to be outdone, the popular Miss Jahara finally stepped onto the stage dressed as a regal schoolteacher. She lost that façade after stripping down to a skimpy bathing suit and dancing to a techno medley. Jahara even brought an audience member to the stage and flirted with the poor uncomfortable soul. She also brought out a few laughs as she happily accepted money from the audience (the proceeds over $250 would go to the Damien Center). This performance signaled the end of the first half of the show.
Opening the second half were two of the student volunteers who came in as drag kings to perform Justin Timberlake’s humorous “Dick in a Box,” with the actual props to go with the song. After the songs, Miss Storm came back to perform a mix of Nelly Furtado songs including her hits “I’m Like a Bird,” “Say It Right,” and “Maneater.” Storm also performed somersaults on stage and afterward cracked a humorous story about football being the “gayest sport in the world.”
Miss Lily Savage re-entered the stage in a black sequined suit and a long black wig, a perfect resemblance of Cher. The songs she performed included “Strong Enough,” “Runaway,” and “Believe.” Afterward, Miss Anna Lisa dressed the part in gold finery—and then a pink gown after that—for her rendition of “My Strongest Suit” from the musical Aida.
Mr. Sebastian came back for another performance; this time he performed some heavy dancing from *NSYNC’s “Dirty Pop.” Pattie Lee reappeared in her Miss Gay Albany attire—complete with the sash and silver tiara—to sing “That’s Life” by Westlife. Miss Dusty Rose followed suit with her rendition of Reba McEntire’s “I’m a Survivor.”
Melissa Capree then impersonated Catherine Zeta Jones in “I Can’t Do It Alone” from Chicago, pulling quite a few flips and splits during the performance. Again, following Capree was Miss Jahara, whose performance was an enigma to co-host Pattie Lee. Jahara asked for a lone white spotlight and a chair stationed in the middle of the stage as she started to perform “Hurt” by Christina Aguilera. The tune sped up as Cascada’s “Listen to Your Heart” started to play and Jahara shed off her red robe for a sparkling silver halter dress—a very short one at that.
It was finally the moment for the student volunteers to come out in order to show the audience the result of their makeovers. They even renamed themselves after their characters, including risqué names such as “Slick Dick,” “Anna Rexia,” “Lucy Vagina,” and “Fook Me.” RPA’s Vice President Henry Albin ’07 and President Justin Meden ’10 even became drag queens as the rest of the RPA cheered them on.
Storm concluded the performance with Whitney Houston’s “I’m Every Woman,” while the drag queens and king paraded about the auditorium. By the end of the night, the audience cheered and clapped as loudly as they could for the king and queens.
